Released on = May 10, 2007, 4:26 pm

Press Release Author = GTCbio

Industry = Pharmaceuticals

Press Release Summary = Dr. Yaya Liu, Research Investigator at Abbott Laboratories
in Illinois will give a presentation entitled "Fluorescence Polarization Assay
Development for Cyclophilin, a Challenging PPIase
Target for Antiviral Drug Discovery" at GTCbio's 2nd Assay Development & High
Throughput Screening Conference on May 31-June 1 in Boston, MA.


Press Release Body = Peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerase cyclophilin A (CypA) serves
as a cellular receptor for the important immunosuppressant drug, cyclosporin A. In
addition, cyclophilin A and its enzyme family have been found to play critical roles
in a variety of biological processes including protein trafficking, HIV and HCV
infection/replication, and Ca2+ -mediated intracellular signaling. For these
reasons cyclophilins have emerged as potential drug targets for several diseases.
Therefore, it will be extremely important to screen for novel small molecule
cyclophilin inhibitors. Unfortunately, the biochemical assays reported so far are
not adaptable to a high throughput screening format. Here we report a fluorescence
polarization-based assay for human cyclophilin A that can be adapted to high
throughput screening for drug discovery. The technique is based on competition and
uses a fluorescein-labeled cyclosporin A analog and purified human CypA to
quantitatively measure the binding capacity of unlabeled inhibitors. Detection by
fluorescence polarization allows real-time measurement of binding ratios without
separation steps. The results obtained demonstrated significant correlation among
assay procedures, suggesting that the application of fluorescence polarization in
combination with CypA is highly advantageous for the accurate assessment of
inhibitor binding.

GTCbio's 2nd Assay Development & High Throughput Screening Conference on May 31-June
1 will take place at the Omni Parker House in downtown Boston, MA. The meeting will
be held concurrently with GTCbio's 2nd Protein Kinases in Drug Discovery Conference.


For more information including a detailed agenda, exhibitor opportunities and
registration information visit
http://www.gtcbio.com/conference/conferenceDetails.aspx?id

Web Site = http://www.gtcbio.com

Contact Details = GTCbio organizes conferences specifically for the biomedical and
biopharmaceutical industries. Our goal is to facilitate the exchange of
biopharmaceutical and biomedical intelligence between industry leaders, academic and
government organizations, and the financial community.

GTCbio is a subsidiary of Global Technology Community, LLC, a privately held company
founded in 2002.

Contact: GTCBIO (626) 256-6405, (626) 256-6460 fax, raniah@gtcbio.com